Welcome to Bimmerfest -- The #1 Online Community for BMW related information! Please enjoy the discussion forums below and share your experiences with the 200,000 current, new and past BMW owners. The forums are broken out by car model and into other special interest sections such as BMW European Delivery and a special forum to voice your questions to the many BMW dealers on the site to assist our members!

This thread is extremely helpful in explaining how to access these HVAC bulbs. I was able to get to the bulbs pretty easily.

But now, I have a different problem - I only intended to change the bottom bulb. I went to the auto parts store, found the GE #37 bulb, inserted it, and reassembled. NO WORKY! Not only that, but the other bulb - the one that is behind on the passenger side - doesn't work either! I checked fuses, none seem to be blown. Any suggestions as to what I did?

This thread is extremely helpful in explaining how to access these HVAC bulbs. I was able to get to the bulbs pretty easily.

But now, I have a different problem - I only intended to change the bottom bulb. I went to the auto parts store, found the GE #37 bulb, inserted it, and reassembled. NO WORKY! Not only that, but the other bulb - the one that is behind on the passenger side - doesn't work either! I checked fuses, none seem to be blown. Any suggestions as to what I did?

If you shorted the wiring, the headlight switch dimmer rheostat blows. Not a fuse.
Do you have dimmed lighting on the other items?

If you shorted the wiring, the headlight switch dimmer rheostat blows. Not a fuse.
Do you have dimmed lighting on the other items?

I do, and everything else is dimming properly - speedo gauge cluster, switches on console, gauges on console (M coupe console). I don't understand how I could have shorted anything, all I did was pull out the bulb holder from the positions in the back of the HVAC unit. Any other thoughts? Help much appreciated!

Ron, your advice and posting on your site about this is great. Following your advice and gettin some bulbs locally I was able to find the problem and fix it in about 20 minutes. Thank you for the help and for the offer of the bulbs for such a good price. You make tackling mods a whole lot easier!

Ron, your advice and posting on your site about this is great. Following your advice and gettin some bulbs locally I was able to find the problem and fix it in about 20 minutes. Thank you for the help and for the offer of the bulbs for such a good price. You make tackling mods a whole lot easier!

Yep. I tried replacing just the bulbs, not the holders, with a corresponding GE bulb from a parts store. It didn't work. I then went to the dealer and bought the bulbs with the holder in a single unit. Plugged in the dealer version, it lit right up. Conclusion: dealer part is cheap enough, no need to try to find a substitute.

Just finished replacing both of my bulbs, boy that one in back is a bit tough to get out - tiny pliers might have helped. Thanks Ron for all the great pics. Did you actually buy that HVAC control just to get a nice picture?

I had an interesting side effect - now my temperature gauge actually allows warm air rather than producing heat only when almost all the way to hot position (it used to be more like an off/on switch). Must have been from bending it around to get to that back bulb - caused some linkages to change. I like it better now and it does feel a little different.